His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the ex- ADVERTISEMENT. THESE Sermons are published at the request of some who heard them, but against the judgment of the Author. Should they, however, be found useful but by one reader, in the work of selfexamination and penitence, he will be content to bear the blame which he is conscious of deserving, for committing to the press discourses which have little but the importance of the subject to recommend them. SERMON I. THE EXCEEDING SINFULNESS OF SIN. ROMANS, vii. 13. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid! But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. "Know thyself," said the wise man of Greece, "know thyself, is a maxim which came down from heaven." And, undoubtedly, self-knowledge is one of the great wants of fallen man. We do not know ourselves. We have inherited not only a corrupt will, but a darkened understanding; and though we may have sufficient light imperfectly to distinguish the broad contrast between right B and wrong, we are unable to detect the finer lines of demarcation even in others; and in ourselves are so blinded by the prejudices and interests of self, that we habitually "call evil good and good evil, put darkness for light and light for darkness, bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." Nor is this ignorance removed by our intercourse with one another; to a certain extent it is perpetuated. Men observe each other's actions and principles: and taking the general character of each which they find prevailing around them, erect it into a standard of morals, to which they conform, and by which they try their own lives. Hence, the opinion of the world, the law of honour, the conventional usages of society, become tests by which men learn to judge of right and wrong, crooked rules, which, false in themselves, can but mislead those who apply them to the decision of their conduct. Thus error is perpetuated; and man, left to him 1 Isa. v. 20. |